NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWSLETTER - September 2014. Branch Meeting Wednesday 17^th.

ENTERTAINMENT.

Tonight we be will learning all about "Pubs of Poole" from Frank Henson.

BINGO NIGHT.

Wednesday 15^th October this will be our BINGO NIGHT, with FISH/ CHICKEN & CHIP SUPPER with VEGETARIAN OPTION.     John Griffiths is now responsible for the bookings and monies this year. 

He has made the following arrangements:     The Cost of all food is to be £4.50 Per person.  This must be booked and paid for in advance.   You will be able to book and pay Gwen or Wendy at tonight's meeting. Many thanks to the two Ladies for taking on this task.    To play there will be a charge of £2.00  to help finance the prizes.   For this you will get six games of Bingo.   Allan and Wendy Grover's Daughter Clare has agreed not only to be calling the numbers, but also supplying the Bingo machine.  

ALL MEALS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE.

INFORMAL  LUNCHES.

The next lunch will be held on Tuesday 7^th October at FERNDOWN, ROYAL BRITISH LEGION CLUB.   As all our monthly lunches are now held at  FERNDOWN on the First Tuesday of each month the November lunch has been arranged for Tuesday 4^th  Lists on the table tonight. 

Don’t forget that if you are unable to attend meetings and would like to go to our lunches do contact  Mike Herbert  on 01202  674612.

Please let Mike know before Noon on the Sunday before the Lunch  if you need to cancel as this assists the caterers with food and seating.

VJ DAY.

Bob Hucklesby attended this event which was held at the National Memorial Arboretum Staffordshire.  After the two minutes silence held in the Chapel, he then planted a cross at the Bournemouth and Poole POW tree.   He then took the opportunity to visit the Albert Hicks tree and planted a cross on behalf of the Branch.  He has reported back that Albert's tree is in good shape and condition, and the standard of the maintenance of the arboretum is excellent.   Thank you, Bob.

STAMPED SELF ADDRESSED ENVELOPES.

Please supply SAEs or postage stamps to keep the cost of Newsletter distribution down.

Thanking you in anticipation.   Don’t forget you can receive the Newsletter by E/Mail. Just send your name and E/Mail address to     wishanger@herbert261.co.uk    putting Newsletter in the subject box. Thank you to members who already do this, also to the members who have made cash donations.

 World War One snippets.

How Ordnance Survey Mapped The War.

The Southampton-based Ordnance Survey played a vital role in World War One.
In January 1915, it began a new survey of British sectors in France to replace existing French maps, which were found to be inaccurate and too small in scale. Over the course of the war it printed at least 25 million battlefield maps for use by British troops.
In Southampton, printing presses ran round the clock, supplying up to 20,000 maps a day. In 1917, an Overseas Branch of the Ordnance Survey (OBOS) was established in Northern France to facilitate map production. Both offices employed a substantial number of women, mainly to feed paper to the machines.
At the front, Ordnance Survey officers and the Field Survey Units of the Royal Engineers refined techniques to direct fire onto enemy guns. ‘Flash-spotting’ and ‘sound-ranging’ involved the recording of the flash or report of gunfire at triangulation points, enabling Survey Officers to plot the guns’ location.
Captain Harold Winterbotham, who later become Director General of the Ordnance Survey, was nicknamed ‘The Astrologer’ by gunners for his ability to hit distant targets using the correct line of fire and elevation.

Bovington, Dorset: Secret Tank Training.

The tank was invented to break the stalemate on the Western Front, and the problem of breaking through barbed wire. This new machine would cross trenches, survive machine guns, and act as shields for the infantry.
It first saw action in September 1916, in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. They turned out to be unreliable, travelling at only half a mile an hour. But some significant gains were made and the potential of the tank was recognised.
The small training camp in Suffolk soon became insufficient for the immense training programme that would be needed. So extra land was purchased in Dorset, and the new “Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps” moved to what is to this day its home.
Dorset was chosen because it was regarded as isolated. The rolling downs, the woods and the streets in Bovington were regarded as being very similar to the battlefields of France.

'Text courtesy of the BBC. Find hundreds more World War One at Home stories at

bbc.co.uk/ww1'

Events 2014

FORECAST OF NATIONAL EVENTS 2014

11       October        REA AGM and Annual Dinner*

12       October        Sapper Sunday at Royal Hospital Chelsea.

06       November    Field of Remembrance, Westminster.

09       November    Remembrance Sunday

* National Events            Booking details available from Branch Secretary

Branch Welfare:  Please contact Welfare Member,

Peter Piggott